It’s an exciting, if not challenging time for banks as they absorb, digest and develop strategies around blockchain technology. Without question, it will change many fundamental operations within the financial industry. One such operation is payments.

At Stellar.org, we have developed a global, open-source blockchain protocol for payments. It was my pleasure to share the details of this protocol at the recent Blockchain for Financial Services conference in Dublin. This time, coupled with my standard description Stellar’s asset issuance capability (think: counterparty-backed digital Euro, Dirham or Yen) and decentralized exchange – I ...

Protestations of shock and surprise in the German and international media about Merkel's "huge defeat" in the parliamentary elections are overblown and misplaced. Unlike the recent elections in the UK, the outcome of the German vote was neither a big surprise nor does it spell the end of Germany as we know it. The success of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is disheartening, especially its strong showing in Eastern Germany and the Southern state of Bavaria – in the state of Saxony it emerged as the largest party – but is no grounds for hysteria.

Shifting patients from branded to less expensive generic medicines is an important way to contain health care costs. Yet the prices and prescription rates of generics vary widely across Europe, resulting in missed opportunities for cash-strapped health systems and patients.

Research conducted by Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) in 2011 had shown that there is unfulfilled demand of takaful products in Tanzania and that there are potential investors to fill the demand. In light of this, TIRA decided to study matters of licensing and supervision of Takaful companies from several jurisdictions, the result of which a draft regulation was proposed to important stakeholders in 2013.

September 16, 2017 (Germany): The global halal industry is only merely limited to Muslim countries but non-Muslim countries have also joined this multi-trillion-dollar industry. With the increasing interest in promising halal industry, the need for certified halal products is also increasing to satisfy consumers. However, the global halal industry ...

According to some latest news, the Australians are worried about the increasing number of Kangaroos in the country. The people have been asked to increase their consumption of Kangaroo’s meat which are numbered at about 45 million, almost double the population of the country. An alarming increase in kangaroo population has been reported during the last few years and it is indeed a cause of worry for the authorities and rightly so. However, very few in the global halal industry may have thought about kangaroo as a profitable addition to the list of halal meat.

Today there are more than 700 Islamic Finance Institutions (IFIs) operating in over 75 countries across the globe ranging from full-fledged Islamic banks, Insurance firms to the capital market. Islamic finance is expected to grow USD 5-8 Trillion globally in asset size by 2020 but the incorporation of high tech developments in the industry should result in multifold asset size much greater than expected.

Islamic Finance is a universally accepted mode of financing today. Irrespective of the faith convictions, Islamic finance has been adopted in the world today. However, whenever the prospects and challenges of Islamic finance ...

The entrepreneurial nature of Islamic finance is often compromised in the product development phase, where Islamic financial products have been frequently designed to look and feel like conventional ones.

Takāful is often presented as a kind mutual insurance. Unfortunately, this is not correct for most takāful operators (outside Sudan). In a mutual insurance, the policyholders are the owners of the corporation, jointly bear the insured risk, and receive any underwriting surplus. In a proprietary insurance, the ...